Elements of rock and roll can be heard in blues records of the 20s and country records of the 30s, but the music evolved as a genre during our childhood in the 40s and got named "rock and roll" in 1954, just as we were reaching adolescence. 

We listened and danced to other music genres and other genres made the top forties lists, but our age group was forever as associated with rock as it was with us.

Here are some samples from our high school years. You can listen to them here or choose to listen on YouTube, which you might want to do so you can see their playlists.

Freshman Year, 1957-1958:

Sophomore Year, 1958-1959:

Junior Year, 1959-1960:

Senior Year, 1960-1961:

Here's an hour's worth of listening that covers the entire decade of the 50's: